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24 August 2007

Texas SBOE and Evolution

A Dallas Morning News article this morning, "Education Board Opposes Intelligent Design Curricula," by Terrence Stutz reports that with only one exception the eleven members of the Texas State Board of Eduction oppose the teaching of Intelligent Design in our schools. This is true even though seven of the eleven SBOE members are clearly associated with the Relgious Far Right.

But, as usual, all this is just too good to be true. At least in Texas.

Read the article carefully and you find that the Religious Far Right only want one change to the evolution curriculum: the weaknesses of evolutionary theory must be taught properly According to self-confessed creationist, Don McLeroy, the Chair, of the SBOE these weaknesses include alleged gaps in the fossil record.

You'd be really obtuse not to notice immediately the hand of the Discovery Institute. Ever since the Kitzmiller case it has been clear that introducing Intelligent Design directly is a lost cause in the courts. So, we step back, and out comes their new book, Explore Evolution, with vacuous biological content and of no greater intellectual merit than Of Pandas and People. And then the campaign becomes to introduce it into the classroom as a supplementary text. Creationism evolves again: this is just one variant of the new Stealth Creationism keeping the faith alive during some admittedly lean years.